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Dragon Ball (Manga)
What is Dragon Ball? Dragon Ball '''is a metaseries created by '''Akira Toriyama '''when his Dragon Ball''' manga''' was originally serialized by '''Weekly Shōnen Jump '''starting from 1984 lasting to 1995. Manga Dragon Ball (ドラゴンボール Doragon Bōru?) is originally a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by '''Akira Toriyama. Dragon Ball was initially inspired by the classical Chinese novel Journey to the West. It was originally serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1984 to 199'''5, with the 519 individual chapters published into 42 tankōbon volumes by Shueisha.The series follows the adventures of the protagonist, '''Goku, from his childhood through adulthood as he trains in martial arts and explores the world in search of the seven orbs known as the Dragon Balls, which summon a wish-granting dragon when gathered. Along his journey, Goku '''makes several friends and battles a wide variety of villains, many of whom also seek the '''Dragon Balls. Pre-Dragon Ball Main Article: Dragon Boy '''and The Adventures of Tongpoo ' Just prior to ending the successful four-year run of his humor manga Dr. Slump, in the Weekly Shōnen Jump anthology magazine, Akira Toriyama started to toy with the ideas that he would later use in the Dragon Ball manga. In 1983, he wrote two issues of the '''Dragon Boy' manga for the Fresh Jump anthology magazine. This story, left unfinished, merges the comic style of Dr. Slump with an action-oriented plot. It includes many elements which would be reused in the later series, including a very different kind of Dragon Ball. Additionally in 1983, he published (but also did not finish) T'he Adventures of Tongpoo', a science fiction manga also featuring a Goku-like character and plot elements (such as Hoi Poi Capsules) which he would reuse later. Overview The story of Dragon Ball follows the life and adventures of Son Goku, a''' Monkey-tailed boy. Starting from his adventures as a child all the way up to the point of becoming a grandfather. During his life, he endures many battles in his youth and becomes the strongest '''marital artist '''on '''Earth. Plot The story of Dragon Ball gradually unfolds over 11 years of publication.The early volumes of the manga (chapters 1-134) are primarily humorous, fantasy stories, but they also contain some minor sci-fi elements, much like Dr. Slump. Notable fantasy elements include not only the monkey boy Goku and the Dragon Balls themselves, but also many talking animal characters, odd martial art techniques, and identifying characters as gods and demons. Despite the fantasy elements, the world does contain highly advanced technology including hoi-poi capsules, space-saving capsules which are pocket sized but can store almost any object (including cars, planes and even houses) and other "near future" objects. The overall mood of the earlier volumes is light with few deaths and an emphasis on adventure and humor. A subtle but significant change in mood begins after Goku's best friend Krillin is killed (the first of many deaths in this arc). This begins the King Piccolo Saga (chapters 135-194) in which the manga enters a darker tone compared to its earlier volumes. Dragon Ball fully transforms into an action based shōnen manga at the onset of the Saiyan arc (chapters 195-241). Starting with introduction of Goku's first child, things begin to take a much more serious and harder sci-fi approach. Many characters which previously had fantasy origins (including Goku and Piccolo) are recast as aliens from other planets. Advanced space travel, alien threats, and powerful cyborgs and androids take center stage instead of more fantastic villains. After the defeat of Vegeta, and the conclusion of the Saiyan arc, the survivors of the vicious Saiyan attack head off to the planet Namek to resurrect their friends. This begins the Freeza arc (chapters 242-329). The Freeza arc is noteworthy for introducing the first Super Saiyan, now a staple of the series. It also sets the tone for more awesomely powerful characters. For example, the antagonist Freeza is first said to have a "power level" (the series' futuristic measure of a fighter's speed and strength, i.e., one average human is listed as 5) of 530,000. He then transforms into a more powerful form, at which point his power level is over 1,000,000. After two subsequent transformations, he reveals that he is still only using a fraction of his full power. The Android arc (chapters 330-420) introduces Future Trunks, a mysterious Half-Saiyan Half-Human from a destroyed future world where all of the Z Fighters are killed by evil, seemingly unstoppable war machines called jinzōningen, and the enigmatic and villainous Cell who is made from the cells from most of the heroes as well as some of the villains. This arc is notable for being the only arc in which Goku does not defeat the main villain, but instead Son Gohan defeats Cell. In this arc, Gohan surpasses the level of Super Saiyan and reaches the stage of Super Saiyan 2 in order to defeat Cell. After Goku's death he is allowed to keep his body and train in other world. Seven years pass and Goku gets stronger while Gohan's power decreases. Baba allows Goku to return to Earth for a single day which marks the start of the Majin Buu arc (chapters 421-519) which is the final arc of the manga. The beginning of this final arc concentrates on a teenaged Gohan. All the male Saiyans manage to reach the level of Super Saiyan at least (including fusions). Gohan can still use Super Saiyan 2, Goku and Vegeta obtain this transformation. And the final level of the Super Saiyans, Super Saiyan 3, is reached by Goku, and later Gotenks. A considerable number of fusions also take place to add to the series, allowing Son Goten and Kid Trunks to fuse resulting in Gotenks, Goku and Vegeta fuse to create the single most powerful character in Dragon Ball: the invincible Vegetto. During this series, Majin Buu destroys earth and even manages to increases his own power by absorbing Gotenks, Piccolo and Gohan. Majin Buu also succeeds where the villains Vegeta, Freeza and Cell had previously failed and destroys Earth. Earth and everyone that was on it when it was destroyed are restored using the Namekian Dragon Balls, and Kid Buu is destroyed by Goku's Genki Dama only after taking on Goku, Vegeta, Mr. Satan and good Buu. Kid Buu was reincarnated into a human being of pure good called Uub. Ten years later, Goku asks good Buu to cheat so Goku and Uub can have a match, after the match Goku decides to go to Uub's village and train Uub to his potential so that one day they can have a match to decide who is the strongest fighter in the universe (currently Goku). Uub's village later receives money from Mr. Satan. To say goodbye the heroes that appear in the manga (excluding minor characters), everyone waves to the readers and a large "THE END" sign is seen floating. After completing this series, Toriyama had a break before making gag manga called Nekomajin. This story features many elements and a few characters from Dragon Ball, including characters such as Majin Buu, Vegeta, and Goku. A Korean MMORPG follow-up to the manga, Dragon Ball Online, was developed with Bandai Namco Games and NTL. The game acts as a sequel to the manga with Akira Toriyama having supervised all aspects of the game, from storyline and setting to character and location designs. In a press conference in South Korea on February 14, 2008, Kazuhiko Torishima, the director of Shueisha at the time (and Toriyama's first editor), stated that Toriyama had immersed himself in creating character designs and providing editorial supervision for the game for the past five years.